The UN Security Council has voted to authorise the withdrawal of up to 2,000 peacekeepers from the Democratic Republic of Congo by 30 June. However, it has delayed a decision on the full withdrawal of its 20,500-strong force, as sought by Congolese President Joseph Kabila, to next year.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is steadfastly enforcing the policy proclaimed by his predecessor, Kofi Annan, in 2004 amid charges that UN peacekeeping personnel in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), both civilian and military, committed sexual exploitation and abuse.

In a 10-month rampage of killings, rape and mutilation in neighbouring countries that may constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity, the rebel Ugandan Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), has killed some 1,300 civilians, abducted 1,400 more, including hundreds of children and women, and displaced nearly 300,000 others, the United Nations reported today.

United Nations peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the national army adopted new directives today for operations against rebels with the protection of civilians as the core focus following reports of massacres and other serious human rights violations by Congolese soldiers.

“The present UN system does not correspond in its current concept to the hopes of its founders and to the letter of the Charter that its creation was able to inspire,” DRC Foreign Minister Alexis Thambwe Nwamba said as the Assembly entered the fifth day of its annual General Debate.

Clinton says preventing the exploitation and marginalization of girls is no longer an afterthought but a core foreign policy objective of the United States, which is co-sponsoring a Security Council resolution on the issue next week.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Congolese President Joseph Kabila say they are both committed to improving security in Congo's troubled Kivu regions. Secretary Clinton announced $17 million in new U.S. assistance to help victims of sexual violence in Congo.

The tense moment happened as Clinton spoke to students at a Congolese university in Kinshasa. A male student rose to ask a question about Chinese financial contracts in his country. The student asked Clinton what President Obama would think of the deal, but pool reporters in the room said the translator made a mistake and asked what Bill Clinton would think.

The U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations says the U.N. peacekeeping force is stretched to the limit, and needs more support and supervision. Ambassador Susan Rice told the House Foreign Affairs Committee that peacekeeping helps protect the United States and other nations. Rice is urging Congress to support peacekeeping, despite sexual misconduct by a few members of the force.

Mounia Lakhdar-Hamina and Kandi Godia, of the Conduct and Discipline (CDU) unit recalled the importance for staff to conduct themselves well. “Recruited to assist a country beset by various difficulties, MONUC staff are continually watched by the population,” said Ms Kandi Godia. In this respect, they are expected to comply with “the highest standards of conduct required by their private and professional lives.” In other words, staff should comply with the UN codes of conduct and the host country’s laws, she added.